Shadfest in Lambertville

On the weekend of April 25th I headed to Lambertville, NJ for their Shadfest. There’s a few other shad related festivals, most notably the Shad-Planking in VA, but aside from that event sounding actually awful to be at, Lambertville promised me shad hauling demos. I thought I’d share some photos from that.

Shadfest cookies, C’Est La Vie cafe in New Hope, PA

There were shad puns aplenty. 

Lambertville (and it’s across-the-river counterpart New Hope) seemed like a really nice little town although we did get threatened by this guy along the canal.

This family holds the only license to commercially fish for shad here. 

They head up the river and cast a net and haul it in. It seemed grueling.

Shadfest is primarily an arts festival but I won’t hold it against them because I have a lot of experience with thematic street festivals and they rarely immerse you in their theme. (Kennet Square Mushroom Festival broke my heart in this way.)

Besides, on the car there and back we listened to “Shad: The Founding Fish” by John McPhee and basically we learned that throughout history, everyone hates shad. 

The photos are lacking because I didn’t request a press pass. I didn’t know they had PRESS PASSES TO SHAD FEST. I wonder if I could make the cut.